[...]... enquiry into the debate about the choice of the reforms and their impact on economic performance is due The commonalities and differences of the nature of reform among East Asian, CEE, and the CIS nations and the subsequent productivity contours call for a careful comparative analysis To do so, we turn to the literature, draw on our own work from over the years, and build an empirical picture of the policies... developments were unimaginable The extent and the speed of the changes have taken everybody by surprise The developments occurred so fast and the impact of the changes has been so vast that the importance of understanding the forces that unleashed this process, the importance of understanding how these changes became possible, and the importance of understanding the lessons for other developing countries... policies and institutional shifts that triggered agricultural growth in some of the world’s twenty-eight transition nations and led to stagnation in others The lessons learned from the process of transition in the agrarian development of most of the formerly Socialist countries can inform policy makers and scholars about the choice of reform strategy, the constraints in making these choices, and the relationship... institutional, and social factors including the behaviour of the agents whom they are trying to influence Looked at in this way, reform choices are choices endogenously made by leaders, functions of series of material and behavioural constraints, not the least of which is the enthusiasm of those at the grassroots, which in the case of the agricultural reforms means the farmers and the local of cials and farm... decade of transition Examined through the lens of productivity, the patterns of performance are more similar between East Asia and CEE than they are between CEE and the CIS nations 1.1 Measuring success and identifying its determinants Given these intriguing combinations of policies and performances that have unfolded during the first decade of transition in the agricultural sectors of the world’s transition. .. putting together the political economy story of agricultural reform, our analysis is conducted at two levels First, we examine how the differences in the political process of the agricultural reforms affected the outcomes To do so, we examine who supported the process of reform and who resisted and show that it was in those nations where there was a congruence of interests between the grassroots and the top... was the Communist government in China able to guide the reform process while it took a regime change in Russia (and in most of CEE and the other CIS nations) to start the reforms? Why did the market liberalization and other reforms happen so fast in some nations and happen only gradually in others? Why did the nature of property rights reform in land and farm restructuring differ so dramatically from. .. nations, the complexities of the policies, and the timing of reforms differ so substantially, we must necessarily limit the scope of our enquiry in this part of the book, too As before we primarily restrict our attention to a subset of policies: property rights reform and farm restructuring and market liberalization.2 In examining the determinants of these reform policies we also limit ourselves to three... Introduction The emergence of China as a global economic powerhouse, the integration of ten Central and Eastern European countries into the European Union (EU), and the uncertain path of Russia towards a market economy have occupied the minds and agendas of policy makers, business leaders, and scholars throughout the world since the last part of the twentieth century Twenty years ago these developments... conclusions of the analyses in both parts of the book, draws a series of lessons, and looks at more recent and future developments Chapter 10 presents the conclusions of Parts I and II of the book and Chapter 11 discusses general lessons from our analysis In the final Chapter 12 we analyse recent developments in the transition world the second decade of transition and how our analysis is relevant for understanding . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" From Marx and Mao to the Market This page intentionally left blank From Marx and Mao to the Market The Economics and Politics of Agricultural Transition Johan F. M. Swinnen Scott. traditional agricultural and trade policies; but, soon, the study of transition in Central and Eastern Europe irresistibly drew him to the East, into the field of comparative eco- nomics and transition. unimaginable. The extent and the speed of the changes have taken everybody by surprise. The develop- ments occurred so fast and the impact of the changes has been so vast that the importance of understanding